Weather Alert: Heavy rain and thunderstorms, major floods in Vienne and Creuse

From Sunday March 31 at 6:00 p.m. to Monday April 1 at 9:00 a.m.

Situation

For more than a month, the south-east of France has suffered a succession of Mediterranean and Cévennes episodes. This is the case again this weekend, until Monday morning. This Mediterranean and Cévennes episode is the sixth since the beginning of February, which has never happened at this time of the year. These heavy rains are moving towards Rhône-Alpes and Burgundy with the risk of river reactions. In the southwest, brief but strong storms are moving up from the Pyrenees and Aquitaine to Limousin this evening with a risk of hail.

Furthermore, due to the heavy rain that fell during the night from Friday to Saturday, Vienne and Creuse are experiencing major flooding. VIGICRUE has passed the RED level (maximum level) in the departments of Indre-et-Loire and Vienne. Even if the precipitation weakens in the coming days, occurring in the form of showers, the decline should be slow.

Observation

This Sunday

At 9 p.m., stormy rains continued from Aquitaine to Limousin. It is in the south-east up to Burgundy via Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes that the rainy activity is the most marked and the rains are the heaviest. In these regions, the cumulative precipitation since Friday evening is around 30 to 50 mm with peaks of more than 200 mm in the Cévennes.

At 18 o’clock, stormy rains rise from the Pyrenees and invade the south of Aquitaine. At the same time, the weather is deteriorating very quickly in the south-east with the increase in stormy rains from Provence Côte d’Azur to the Cévennes. In Burgundy, electrical activity is intense between Côte-d’Or and Haute-Saône.
The wind also increases to 123 km/h in Villard-de-Lans (38) and between 80 and 100 km/h between Le Puy (43), Saint-Etienne (42) and Lyon (69).

At 15h, rain-storm activity is increasing in Aquitaine as far as Burgundy. In the south-east, ahead of the trough, rains are developing in Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur and are starting to increase in the Cévennes.

At 12, the rains temporarily weaken in the south-east, except in the Cévennes where they remain heavy. These sustained rains moved towards the Saône valley and the Morvan. Since yesterday morning, the cumulative rainfall stands at 130 mm in Mayres (07), 121 mm in La Souche (07), 100 mm in Barnas (07) and 85 mm in Saint-Sauveur-en-Rue (42) .

At 9 a.m., heavy stormy rains affect Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur and reach up to Rhône-Alpes and Burgundy. Since yesterday, the accumulations have exceeded 100 mm in the Ardèche Cévennes, in Mayres with 110 mm. Furthermore, the wind blows very strongly at 101 km/h in Aigues-Mortes (13) and between 90 and 100 km/h on the Hérault coast.

Evolution

This evening and until the end of the night from Sunday to Monday, a burst of heavy rain is sweeping the entire east of the country, and in particular the Mediterranean and Cévennes regions, once again affected by intense stormy rains. This will be the most critical moment of this episode of bad weather: through accumulation, this precipitation will lead to significant risks of flooding and intense urban runoff. In the mountains, it will snow heavily in the south of the Alps with 40 to 80 cm of fresh snow between Queyas and Mercantour, increasing the risk of avalanches. This rain will move towards Rhône-Alpes and especially Burgundy where significant accumulations of water are expected (between 30 and 50 mm).

In the southwest, strong but brief storms move up from the Pyrenees and Aquitaine towards the west of the Massif Central and Limousin this evening, until the middle of the night from Sunday to Monday. They cause strong electrical activity as well as a risk of hail and brutal gusts of nearly 100 km/h.

Monday morning, the disturbance will linger to the east of the Rhône and the Saône until around 3 to 6 a.m., bringing still quite marked rain, before a fairly rapid improvement.

List of departments concerned